Reviews

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, from the Regensburg Pentateuch, c.1300. Israel Museum, Jerusalem/The Ridgefield Foundation, New York, in memory of Henry J. and Erna D. Leir/Bridgeman Images.

‘Who Really Wrote the Bible’ by William M. Schniedewind review

Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes by William M. Schniedewind asks what authorship meant to the hidden hands behind the Old Testament.

A folding screen showing an indigenous wedding in Mexico, c. 1660-90. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘Patria’ by Laurence Blair review

In Patria: Lost Countries of South America, Laurence Blair explores nine nations, dissolved or imagined, and what they tell us about Latin America.

A bronze head of Ptolemy II or III, c. 246-222 BC. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The Last Dynasty’ and ‘The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome’ review

Can The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra and The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome: A History of the Ptolemies fashion a finale for the pharaohs?

People gather to read a special edition of the Nürnberger newspaper reporting the sentences handed down by the International Military Tribunal, 1 October 1946. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.

‘The Writers’ Castle’ by Uwe Neumahr review

In The Writers’ Castle: Reporting History at Nuremberg, Uwe Neumahr discovers that it wasn’t just the men in the dock who had scandalous social lives and hidden agendas.

Reason, Righteousness and Sincerity teaching some women, c. 1425-50. KB, National Library of the Netherlands. Public Domain.

‘Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife’ and ‘God’s Own Gentlewoman’ review

Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women and God’s Own Gentlewoman bring the real world of medieval women out of the margins.

A police officer checks the ID of three members of the Ku Klux Klan in Panorama City, California, 18 September 1966. University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections (CC BY 4.0).

‘A Great Disorder’ by Richard Slotkin review

In A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America, Richard Slotkin attempts to untangle the stories that the US tells itself about race, colonialism and the Civil War. Is it a lost cause?

The assasination of George Villiers, the duke of Buckingham, and favourite to King James IV and I, by Romeyn de Hooghe, 1699. Herzog August Library. Public Domain.

‘The Scapegoat’ by Lucy Hughes-Hallett review

The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett picks through the fragments of George Villiers, James VI & I’s favourite mistake.

‘Death in the Crimea’ by William Bullock Webster, 18 January 1856. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

‘Crimean Quagmire’ by Gregory Carleton review

In listening to the war’s loudest voices, Crimean Quagmire: Tolstoy, Russell and the Birth of Modern Warfare by Gregory Carleton drowns out the diversity of opinion.

Seeing is believing: a flying saucer, sighted on 4 June 1964. NARA, Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Public Domain.

‘After the Flying Saucers Came’, ‘Think to New Worlds’ and ‘How to Think Impossibly’ review

Recent books by Greg Eghigian, Joshua Blu Buhs and Jeffrey J. Kripal demonstrate the challenges that historians face in making sense of Fortean times.

‘Venus and Adonis’, by Peter Oliver, c. 1631. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.

‘Straight Acting’ by Will Tosh review

Bard romance? Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh sets the stage for the next wave of accessible queer histories.